Collapse
by Claire D'Aubigne
Summary: Tim reflects on the crimefighting life and the people in it. Complete. AUish. Standard disclaimers apply.


Sometimes, life is just a big game. In fact, it's Collapse. You know, that Internet game with the colored blocks, where you keep the stacks from touching the sky? That's my life game.

The villains we fight-- they're the stacks. The stacks are never your friends. It's always a constant struggle to keep them from the top. Batman… he's the bombs. They might help you out a little, but really… every time you use one, the speed of the whole game increases. Maybe it's a minimal amount, but still.

And the Robins… we're those damned flashing blocks. Every time you get rid of one, another pops up. There's always a Robin in the picture. We multiply. There will always be a Robin.

Dick. Jason. And Tim. We each have our own story, and each story has a different ending.

It's not really right for me to tell their stories--the other two. But then, I wouldn't be here without them. They're my brothers, my mentors… and I'm the replacement.

The Joker tried to eliminate the first flashing block. That'd be Dick. He shot Dick in the arm and Bruce whipped Robin right out from under him. Swore up and down that Dick would be a Normal Guy--that was what Bruce wanted. And ordinarily, Bruce would have gotten his way… except that he was dealing with one of two people in the world as stubborn as he is. (The other would be Alfred, by the way.)

Hell, maybe those Collapse bombs don't like the color-changing blocks either. After all, their sole purpose is to keep those stacks from touching the top, and the one block that can't be eliminated is the flashing one.

But I digress. Anyway, so Bruce took Robin away from Dick and Dick retaliated by leaving. There never was a normal guy option for Dick and maybe if he would have stayed longer, Bruce would have realized that and let him resume his role as Junior Bat. Didn't happen. Dick left home, like I said, became Nightwing and eventually got a city of his own to look after.

It looked, for a while at least, as if the Bat would work alone. Just when the villain community was breathing a sigh of relief (two superheroes are way worse than one, after all… even if one is just a teen), Jason stepped onto the scene.

And Bruce took a completely different turn with Jase than he did with Dick. He adopted him. I know… the papers are still in Bruce's desk. I don't know what his motive was on that… maybe he thought it was the only way to keep him off the streets. Not that it really worked. I don't think taking an orphan and turning him into a miniature Caped Avenger counts as "keeping him off the streets." Maybe child protective services was a little leery when Dick went there and they put their foot down this time. I don't really know; it's never really been explained to me in detail.

Just like his predecessor, though, Jason had a run-in with a bad guy. Only this time, he came out way worse for wear. He died. His costume was added to the cave as a morbid reminder to everyone--this is what happens to people like us.

And now there's me, Tim Drake. And things have definitely changed since Dick's short-pants days. Batman's way more protective now than he ever was with them. I guess it's a side-effect of losing Jason. It's not that Bruce didn't worry about Dick and Jase… it's just that he didn't let it affect everything else. And Dick's just as much of a mentor as Bruce is. I've never had a big brother before joining this family.

So if we're all different flashing blocks, Dick would be the one that started it all. The one who popped out of nowhere and the players just didn't know what to do so they gasped and held their breaths and waited to see if it'd stop. Then when they realized it wouldn't, they tried to ignore it until it became a huge hazard. Then, finally, they start that violent clicking thing until the annoying block is eliminated.

And Jason'd be the second block, the one whose time on the game board was tragically short lived because everyone playing the game still held their breath, and the instant that flashy block popped up, they got rid of it. No waste of time this round.

I don't know what that makes me. The third block… I know. But what happens with the third flashing block? Some people click, others ignore. It's usually the third color changing block that is eliminated purely by accident. It was in the right place at the right time.

One thing's for certain, though. After I'm gone, another will pop up. Somewhere.


End file.
